Ecommerce/Shopping Cart Solid Foundation

External Since: Oct 22, 2003 Posts: 35

Please don't think of this as a crosspost. I didn't get the answer I
expected in .....asp.general, so I've posted it in here.

Laphan <news.TakeThisOut@DoNotEmailMe.co.uk> wrote in message news:...
Hi Guys

I know this has probably been asked more times than Google indexes sites,
but I respect the feedback from the NG and want your honest opinions.

I've been given the task of doing a higher level of ecom/shopping cart
system than what I usually do and need to look to doing it via the tried and
tested ways rather than my combo of frames, asp and javascript routines that
have held me in good stead, but this one is a serious job.

It's going to be in the same vein as ebuyer and empire-direct on a slightly
smaller scale, but the whole thing has to be CMS from the start, as my past
projects have always been basically from scratch each time and I need to be
more professional and resourceful with my coding.

I had to use frames before to store the movement of the order in my
Javascript model, the downside to this was my inadequacy with Javascript
other than straightforward client-side (it always seems flaky to me if it is
used anything more than client-side) and the mandatory way of popping out
the https to an external window to show the padlock is also fraught with
disaster. Like I said before I want to go back to the tried and tested
methods rather than my own blazing cross-compatible nightmare.

So to this, I need to understand how you manage the order as it passes from
page to page. I've seen snippets that use Cookies, which I always thought
weren't a reliable option, due to the unnecessary security issues that
browsers now put in place, Sessions, which I've been told were developed by
witches who worship the devil, or DB tracked (somehow). What is the method
used by such as ebuyer and the ilk?

I want to do it all in ASP, as I do have experience in this and trying to
learn another language before this job is done is going to be fraught with
disaster. The DB will probably be SQL Server, although I do have a job
before it that I was going to use Access so as to initiate a guinea pig
stepping stone - eh?

So your feedback on the best footings to go by would be very much
appreciated.

Also do you ever use Visio to design the layout of things such as this, or
is this one of those fancy tools that nobody ever uses because pen and paper
rule every time?

Many thanks.

Laphan

External Since: Sep 15, 2004 Posts: 193

"Laphan" <news RemoveThis @DoNotEmailMe.co.uk> wrote in message
news:40269aed_3@127.0.0.1...
> Please don't think of this as a crosspost. I didn't get the answer I
> expected in .....asp.general, so I've posted it in here.
>
> Laphan <news RemoveThis @DoNotEmailMe.co.uk> wrote in message news:...
> Hi Guys
>
> I know this has probably been asked more times than Google indexes sites,
> but I respect the feedback from the NG and want your honest opinions.
>
> I've been given the task of doing a higher level of ecom/shopping cart
> system than what I usually do and need to look to doing it via the tried
and
> tested ways rather than my combo of frames, asp and javascript routines
that
> have held me in good stead, but this one is a serious job.
>
> It's going to be in the same vein as ebuyer and empire-direct on a
slightly
> smaller scale, but the whole thing has to be CMS from the start, as my
past
> projects have always been basically from scratch each time and I need to
be
> more professional and resourceful with my coding.
>
> I had to use frames before to store the movement of the order in my
> Javascript model, the downside to this was my inadequacy with Javascript
> other than straightforward client-side (it always seems flaky to me if it
is
> used anything more than client-side) and the mandatory way of popping out
> the https to an external window to show the padlock is also fraught with
> disaster. Like I said before I want to go back to the tried and tested
> methods rather than my own blazing cross-compatible nightmare.
>
> So to this, I need to understand how you manage the order as it passes
from
> page to page. I've seen snippets that use Cookies, which I always thought
> weren't a reliable option, due to the unnecessary security issues that
> browsers now put in place, Sessions, which I've been told were developed
by
> witches who worship the devil, or DB tracked (somehow). What is the
method
> used by such as ebuyer and the ilk?
>
> I want to do it all in ASP, as I do have experience in this and trying to
> learn another language before this job is done is going to be fraught with
> disaster. The DB will probably be SQL Server, although I do have a job
> before it that I was going to use Access so as to initiate a guinea pig
> stepping stone - eh?
>
> So your feedback on the best footings to go by would be very much
> appreciated.
>
> Also do you ever use Visio to design the layout of things such as this, or
> is this one of those fancy tools that nobody ever uses because pen and
paper
> rule every time?

OK Starting from the top
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.Aspin.com" target="_blank">www.Aspin.com</a> there are a few carts there, not going to talk about any, as I
don't know the good ones from the bad ones...
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.Charon.co.uk" target="_blank">www.Charon.co.uk</a> and <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://thechocolatestore.com/ultradev/" target="_blank">http://thechocolatestore.com/ultradev/</a> are both
Dreamweaver Extensions that are GOOD carts and will hopefully speed up the
development, if you use DW - I do STRONGLY reccomend using something like
that especially if you are not good with MS SQL as it does most of the
coding for you, I would also reccomend learning it all, as you will want to
customise / take it beyond the limits of the software.

Visio, I am currently involved in redoing a major website with probably a
thousand pages, as such I have started using Visio.. would I reccomend it?
dunno... I have in the past always used pen and paper...

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.GotoMedia.com" target="_blank">www.GotoMedia.com</a> is a site which is good for information on website project
management, Kelly Goto is quite famous as an authoritive figure on it all...

Other than that,

Avoid JavaScript and Frames where ever possible... .

CSS is GOOD and for e-commerce good use of CSS styled layout will be
considerably faster than using Tables (for loading)... Accesibility and all
that should be considered... I have never really gone into it before, but
recently I have had a few emails where people have either criticised or
praised a site which I have worked on, and it shows that there are more
people out there that have some basic problem with using Screens / Mice or
....

Flash is a great tool, but NOT for e-commerce...

Marketing - consider this from the outset, keywords, etc.. are all very
important Title tag is god however!

HTH's

Gerry